Until recently, one of the best known associations between the name Titanic and the District was a popular Thai restaurant on 14th Street.

That’s changed a bit this year, as today marks one hundred years since the RMS Titanic’s sinking in the icy waters of the northern Atlantic. Many Washingtonians are discovering that the District has had its own memorial to the Titanic tragedy for more than 80 years.

Even for me, the Titanic memorial was more of a trivia fact about the city’s obscure monuments. I had never actually seen it, since my tours rarely go near its location at the Southwest Waterfront.

But yesterday, I visited it for the first time to attend a ceremony commemorating the centennial of the Titanic’s sinking.